Chiltern Birder

As far as garden birds are concerned this is the dead time. I have put feeders out in previous years in September and October only to have the food go mouldy. It is a good opportunity to get out the disinfectant and clean the feeders. I have seen nothing in the garden recently, not even a robin. As I was at home I put some food on the ground tray to see if I could attract anything, by nightfall today it was untouched. All I am aware of is wood pigeons, either perched visibly nearby or cooing in the trees. Driving to and from the station I see a few magpies and crows or rooks in the fields. Still no large birds of prey around, hopefully they will return during the winter. The roadside verges have been mowed in Little Chalfont and at the junction of Stony Lane and Amersham road I have regularly seen moorhens for the past week or so pecking in the short grass. It came as a surprise at first as, until the mowing, I had never been aware that there was a pond between the road and the field. ...

Not long back from a week at Whitby. Not for birding, I didn't even bother packing the bins. No interesting birds of prey were visible on the drive up although a fallow doe and her fawn crossed the road in front of me while driving across Ashridge Common. Not a common site at 9:30 in the morning but the deer are spooked by dog walkers often enough to require special care on that road at any time of day. Whitby itself is still a reasonably active fishing port although with the decine of North Sea stocks there seem to be fewer trawlers there every time I visit. Naturally the town itself is full of herring gulls. I took to wearing ear plugs at night as they provide a VERY loud dawn chorus at 5am. I rather regretted not having the camera on me at one point as I saw a juvenile pecking at the red spot on its parent's beak to prompt it to regurgitate. Its a pretty disgusting sight as a sack of grey goo is dropped in front of the young one. Turnstones can be seen poking in the harbour ...

I haven't been out and about much lately and most bird observations have been small brown jobs sitting on wires. No kites seen at all in July and even the swallows have dissapeared from their usual perch. This evening did bring one break, rounding a corner I saw a little owl perched on a fence post. I stopped and it regarded me with an expression of surprise for the best part of a minute before flying off. I have seen them perched on that fence before, perhaps the occupant of the adjacent farm house likes to keep in touch with Mr Potter.

Pulling out of the station car park last week I saw an albeno blackbird feeding on the verge. I have often seen blackbirds with one or two white feathers but this was totally white except for some black feathers in the tail. There may have been some other odd black feathers but as I was negotiating a junction at the time I couldn't pay it the attention it deserved. I have kept a look out but haven't seen it again. During June I have seen one red kite over Latimer and on a drive to the Welsh borders through the Wendover gap didn't see a single bird of prey until we sited a buzzard near Ludlow. The garden is now very quiet with the main visitors being juvenile robins. I will stop feeding when my present stocks of bird food are exhausted and restard in the autumn.

Not all at the same time. The starlings seem to be moving on but I have had a baby blue tit being fed by the ground feeders for the last couple of days and a juvenile robin turned up investigating my mix of sunflower hearts and oatmeal in the hopper. As I had to go to work I didn't see if he returned for the fat and special robin mixture that I put on the tray. With fewer birds visible among the greenary I tend to notice those on telephone wires much more. There seem to be a couple of perches that are so well used that one could believe that somebody had put model birds there permenantly. Just coming into Ley Hill from Latimer one wire is a regular for swallows while in Ley Hill itself a pair of wood pigeons seem to have taken up residence on another. One at least must be real as there was only one there tonight. I was lucky this evening to have a yellowhammer pose in the road in front of the car, double lucky that nobody was following. Also on another wire was an unidentified bird...

This is the time of year when the starling chicks are brought to the feeder. It seems to take them quite a while to get the idea that they are actually next to their food as they call and gape demanding that their parents feed them. Occasionally a really enterprising one will take a peck at the fat. There will be a demand for the fat bars all summer but I will have to stop when the weather warms up as the bars may then start to melt. I was lucky this morning to see a coal tit on the feeder. Like all the tits it didn't linger and it is the first one that I have seen for several months. Because the visits to the garden are so brief it may have been around all winter without being noticed but either way it is nice to see it back. A trip to Oxfordshire yesterday produced the usual crop of red kites, none in the Chesham or Missenden areas this time but one on the way out on the other side of Thame and one near Oxford services coming back. The weather was mixed with heavy showers and low...

There are far fewer birds visible at this time of year although the level of the feeders still goes down. I topped up the nyjer seed feeder today and a goldfinch appeared within minutes. Curious thing, I have never, ever, seen a goldfinch around here except on my feeders, I have no idea where they came from or where they go. Although the field and garden birds are becomming invisible among the greenary there seems to be a good colony of house martins at Latimer, I wish I could say the same for this village. A couple of weeks ago I had to take a trip to the Wye Valley (what a hardship!). On the journey there was the usual split of red kites east of Oxford and buzzards to the west. The buzzards seem well established in the Cotswolds now. There was a good colony of swifts audible as well as visible at Burford and swifts or house martins visible around other villages. The RSPB Nags Head reserve near Parkend in the Forest of Dean is an excellent starting point for walking. Not much was visi...